Leave My Cigarettes Alone!

There are currently 124,273 American farms, in 23 staes on which tobacco is grown. Altogether, the combined total of U.S. production of tobacco products comes out to 487 billion cigarettes,
2.5 billion large cigars and cigarillos, 14.2 million pound of pipe and roll-your-own tobacco,
63.3 million pounds of chewing tobacco, and 60 million pounds of snuff. I know I'm not possibly smoking that much.
Lighting a Camel Wide, I pondered these numbers and checked to see just how much all of this nicotine added up to in revenue for the tobacco industry. I was surprised at the relatively low number of around 2.9 billion dollars that the farmers of these products make. Considering that sales of tobacco products make up almost 50 billion dollars that is pumped into the economy and government coffers each year, you would think that people would have the good sense to treat us smokers with some respect.
Initiatives underway in several states to try to raise even further the taxes we pay on cigarettes and cigars are little more than extortion schemes in my mind. If the extra money would be going into paying for health care or prevention of our youth from ever starting to smoke, that would be one thing. But most of it is not.
Let's break down the average amount of tax on a pack of cigarettes so you can get a better idea of where I'm heading here. The Federal government rakes in some 14 billion dollars a year from cigarette taxes, while state and local governments get close to 12 billion. When you realize that the government is also subsidizing the tobacco growers, there's even more tax dollars going out the window. But the hook is this. In many of the states where they keep raising taxes on smokers, they claim they do this in order to penalize bad behavior, and to fund health and preventive measures. Only it doesn't work out that way.
Some of the money gets used for billboards and such, but the vast majority of these tax dollars go into 'general funds', which means the money can be used for anything. Like a new lamp for some politicos desk, or a flower pot for a corridor. Little pet projects of other politicians are favorite uses for this money. But yet, even though this has been pointed out by the press on several occasions, states keep trying to raise the taxes paid on all tobacco products. What kind of scam do they think they're pulling on us? And penalizing us for a legal activity?
We can't smoke in restaurants, when all they have to do is build a glass wall between sections. Several states and many cities have now made it illegal to smoke in bars! In bars, for God's sake! Beer and cigarettes go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly, yet now you can see us poor suckers standing out in the snow, puffing away just to keep from traumatizing non smokers.
I know. I know. Health, second hand smoke and all that phooey. So, don't breathe in the smoke!
Jeez, all this talk about smoking and now I have to light another one. Here's my point. You non smokers have chased us out of virtually every place we used to be able to smoke. Buses, airplanes, taxis, restaurants, bars, public buildings, etc. You've made it a crime for us to imbibe in a past time that is subsidized by the government.
Bu we've got to draw the line when you attempt to rip us off for even more tax dollars, all in the name of health and prevention, when we know full well the money won't be used for these purposes. How would you like it if we decided we didn't like your bottled water and we need to put a 3 dollar a bottle tax on all of it? No? Well, then why don't you help us by insisting the government lower the taxes on a legal product, and we can save some money to buy even more cigarettes, thus helping move the economy forward? Or in other words, leave my cigarettes alone! Batmanchester

Mrs. Clinton, You're Unfit To Lead This Nation

Hillary Clinton, in what has become a hallmark of her campaign, is milking the incident with David Shuster, an MSNBC correspondent over the use of the words 'pimping out' that Mr. Shuster used during a report he was giving on daughter Chelsea. Despite the fact that Shuster has been suspended by the network, in what most people thought was a wrongful caving in to a political campaign, The elder Mrs. Clinton is now back in the news demanding even harsher punishment over the use of what is basically the slang tossed around by the youth of our country in almost every sentence they can utter it.
By Mrs. Clinton's demands for more and harsher sanctions against Shuster, she shows us all, quite publicly, that she does not have the emotional fortitude to lead this nation, especially not at this time. Her empty and shallow threats made against MSNBC should have been taken for just that when they made the decision to suspend Shuster in the first place. This media whore is not about to pass up free air time when her entire campaign is so broke that she had to lend it 5 million dollars just to make it through till Super Tuesday.
Wait a second. She 'lent' her own campaign 5 million dollars, after boasting record campaign donations? Where did all of the money go? Even if all is on the up and up with that situation, then it shows such fiscal irresponsibility, that she can not be allowed to be in charge of spending at the national level.
Her latest national hissy fit over an issue that she should have allowed to die off due to the backlash that is already making itself evident at the polls yesterday, shows us that this woman is too unstable to be trusted with the nuclear launch codes of our country.
And do we really want a President who may end up spending time fighting off court battles, such as the one filed by Peter Paul on Jan. 12th against her husband, former President Bill Clinton, alleging a scheme to rob Mr. Paul and business partner Stan Lee, of Marvel Comics fame, out of 17 million dollars? You do remember Peter Paul don't you Mrs. Clinton? Oh, that's right. You swear that you never met the man, despite the numerous videos of you together with him, and the recorded telephone conversation that proves beyond any reasonable doubt that you were involved in campaign finance fraud back in the 2000 Senate race in New York.
Should we once again dredge up the $1,000 you invested in the cattle futures market, and then less than a year later, recieved an unbelieveable return of 1,000%, which we all know was a disguised bribe made by Tyson Foods?
Lets tell the voters how you speculated in the Health Care futures while you were overseeing legislation for the reform of the same.
While you were co-President, it was you who ordered the shredding of documents by the Health Care Task Force, that were the subject of a court probe, stole documents and billing records being sought from Vince Foster's office, and only when real threats started to come by the court, did you release the billing record, but not the other documents.
Also forgotten by the voting public is the fact that you ordered the use of the F.B.I. to discredit employees of the Travel Office, who were complaining about the fraudulent use of taxpayer dollars to shuttle big wigs around.
Don't you think the voters in a national election should know that Rudy wasn't the only one who tried to cash in politically on 9/11? Oh yes. What? Did you think we'd all forgotten that while Steven Brill was researching his book about the aftermath of the events of that day, it was your office and you personally who sought the author out to tout your 'comfort meetings' with some of the 9/11 families? You even provided the author with documentation. Only the entire story was bogus. The papers were made up. And the families that you purported to meet with and comfort say that the meetings never took place, that they never met you, and that you were lying through your teeth in order to score political points with New Yorkers.
What could be so damaging to you that Judicial Watch, the organization that probes and prosecutes government corruption has had to file suit against the National Archives in order to obtain records of your daily White House activities? At issue are over 10,000 pages that the courts have said must be released, but yet, your husband is still holding up the process. One must wonder what you're trying to hide.
Just what did you mean when in 1996 you said" We will never build enough prisons to solve our crime problems"?
I also wonder if proponents for net neutrality know that in 1998, you called for 'gatekeeping' of the internet? You remember. Some sort of government editing controls to delete whatever the government decided just wasn't true. Nice try on that one.
This list could go on for page after page, but Mrs. Clinton, even ignoring all of the criminal activity by yourself and your husband, the shame and embarrasment that the both of you caused while in the White House, your recent plugs for public sympathy are pathetic at best, and coldly calculated at worst.
Just taking the case of MSNBC, your blatant attempts to control and cow the media during your campaign shows us exactly what sort of administration you would run. Freedom of the press? Bah! Not if you can help it. You forced Chris Matthews to cower in fear. You caused David Shuster to be suspended over what amounted to nothing, but your vindictiveness now bares it's teeth for all to see with this morning's demands for harsher punishment. Would his being drawn and quartered on national television satisfy your blood lust?
As far as I'd be concerned were I in charge of that network, I'd laugh in your face, and say go ahead and skip the next debate on our station. We'll be more than happy to give your opponent a platform all to himself. I'm sure you'd just love that, would you not?
No. Your barking and yapping show us that you are not fit to lead this nation Mrs. Clinton. We've had more than seven long years of one bully in the Oval Office, and don't want yet another tyrant stomping through the halls of power. If you're a mother first on the campaign trail, what would you be as President of the United States? A wife and mother first, leader of the people second? Batmanchester

Force Congress To Pass H.R. 676

Travelling in committees for over two years now, and not allowed by either the Democrats or the Republicans to come to a vote, H.R. 676, a proposal put forth by John Conyers, would lead to the eventual Universal Health Care that the Presidential candidates only speak lip service to.
Every time the measure is brought forth by a member of Congress, it gets shoved into some committee, such as the House Committee for Energy and Commerce. Even though Conyers' bill has 78 co-sponsors, the insurance industry lobbyists have managed to stifle all debate on the issue, and while not actually killing the bill, it sits in a limbo, awaiting someone with the guts to push it forward, and force a yea or nay vote.
The bill itself has been much maligned by opponents that are deep in the insurance industries' pockets, claiming it would be a government run socialized medicine program. They have blatantly lied about what is in the actual bill, which would take existing resources along with a portion of sales taxes, and insure every single American, and said that doctors all over the country are opposed to this idea.
The lie to this argument can be evidenced by the group Physicians For A National Health Program which boasts the membership of more than 4,000 doctors nationwide.
In fact, in a statement to a gathering of the group, Dr. Quentin Young had this to say: "Good news, There is now a way to exit the nightmare of a collapsing health system. We no longer have to put up with the outrageous costs that keep millions of Americans from receiving medical care and needed medications. Nor will tens of thousands of families have to declare bankruptcy over medical bills. Universal national health insurance (single payer) takes the resources we have in place and deals with them in an intelligent manner, excluding the tragic hemorrhage of resources into non-health entities."
Dr. Martin Luther King said many years ago: "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
Imagine that. Doctors, nurses,dentists, eye care specialists, medical professionals from across the spectrum all calling for true Universal Health Care. All of them decrying the current system for the waste, the corruption, the callous disregard for human life by the HMO's, but yet their voices have never been heard by the American people. The reason for this couldn't be that the insurance industry and the drug companies pay such huge fees for commercial air time, now could it? Tell me it's not because many members of the Senate and the House, including Hillary Clinton, derive great portions of their campaign contributions from these very same conglamerates.
They wouldn't sell out the American people over money would they? No. Of course they wouldn't. That's the reason that I believe that if you all go to John Conyers web site and sign his petition to move H.R. 676 to a vote, then our Congress, who only has our best interests in mind, will move swiftly on this issue, because now they'll know that we're aware of this little scam they've been pulling on us. The petition site is here: http://www.johnconyers.com/HR676
Just imagine. All of us, rich and poor alike, having access to the same type of health care, and not having to worry about our wages being garnished because we can't pay the premiums on a forced, mandated government giveaway to the insurance industry.
If you'd like to read the full text of H.R. 676 go here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.676
After you read the truth about what all of the sponsors and co-sponsors of this bill, go and sign Mr. Conyers petition. Tell Congress to stop trying to bury legislation beneficial to the American people. Let them know they work for us, and not the insurance industry or the drug companies.
Bring H.R. 676 to a vote, and let us see, before the elections, who stands with the People, and who stands against our best interests. Batmanchester

Nebraska Will Vote For Whoever Shows Up

As the Democratic candidates gear up for the five states that will be either caucasing or voting in a primary this Saturday, the state of Nebraska has taken on an unusual importance due to the closeness of the Democratic race.
With Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton virtually tied in the delegate count, Nebraska's 24 delegates and 7 super delegates took on an urgent importance to both campaigns, but the voters here say they'll go with the candidate who actually shows up to talk to them.
While Obama spoke before a crowd of ten thousand in Omaha, and his wife Michelle was due to speak to a crowd at the Memorial Auditorium in Lincoln today, the best the Clinton campaign could muster was to send daughter Chelsea to this state where voters are as fickle as the wind.
Adding in the fact that the mayor of Lincoln, Chris Beutler, Omaha mayor Mike Fahey, and Sen. Ben Nelson have all endorsed Obama, and one can see the Obama campaign taking most, if not all of the delegates from the Cornhusker state.
Chelsea Clinton spoke to a group of students here and was asked by one of them to explain why they should trust her mother. "She does what she says she will do," Chelsea Clinton said. And went on to say that her mother never gave up when her 1993 Health Care Initiative fell through.
On the flip side, many people skipped seeing Chelsea Clinton in Lincoln, opting instead to drive to Omaha to see Obama. Many were upset that candidate Clinton didn't consider Nebraska to be important enough to come and personally speak with them. "I'm going to see Obama because at least he'll come and tell us what he has to say." said Amy Goodwright of Lincoln. Chris Slaughter, who attends the University of Nebraska added ""He speaks to us, He's a once-in-a-generation candidate. I've never felt this close to a candidate before."
Those sentiments seem to be the prevailing thinking going into Saturday. Nebraskans want the candidates to come here and sit down in the coffee shops with them, just as they did in new Hampshire and Iowa. Many call it a case of Iowa envy. Feeling ignored in the last few Presidential races, and being in the position they find themselves in, voters here are screaming for attention and their votes can be had by the candidate who gives them the attention they rightly deserve.
At the Omaha event, Obama told the crowd "You're here because you don't want to just be against something, you want to be for something." Meanwhile Chelsea Clinton didn't do her mother any favors with answers like "It's not how people react when they succeed but how they react when they fail."
Nebraskans are seeking a new face, a new start, and someone who can deliver on the message of hope. The voters here overwhelmingly support Universal Health Care, but are stridently opposed to any mandate such as Mrs. Clinton speaks of, where she held up the possibilty of wage garnishment to enforce her plan. Bob Michaelson of Lincoln states " I'll move to Canada if she wins and tries to take the food from my family's table to give to the insurance companies."
A look at the other side of the Saturday event does show support for Clinton though. Former Senator Bob Kerrey has endorsed Clinton, as well as Nebraska Public Service head Ann Boyle.
But if you balance this out with the endorsements of the so called super delegates such as National Committeeman Vince Powers who said he would endorse whichever candidate that showed up, and Andra Austerguard, a Democratic party official and super delegate, as well as the endorsement of Iowa Governor Chet Culver, who was at the Omaha rally and is also a super delgate endorsing Obama, and a Nebraska landslide could be in the making for the only candidate with the brains enough to know that even the little people need to feel important sometimes. And as it stands right now, that candidate is Barak Obama. Batmanchester

Your Papers And Password Please

Just in case anyone missed the story in the Washington Post, and featured on MSNBC's web site, I'll run it down for you in quick step. The story deals with the issue of security personell at airport security checkpoints here in the United States, demanding access to personal laptop computers, passwords and all, before allowing people to board their flight. The searches included the downloading of all web sites visited by the computer. No warrant. No suspicion of a crime being committed. Just, your papers and your password please. Included in these unconstitutional searches are children who have MP3 players, whose songs are downloaded for some reason, and people's cell phones being taken so that phone numbers to and from it can be copied and stored.
On top of this story, we also read yesterday (or you should have) about the F.B.I.'s newest billion dollar grant to start a program that will biometrically store information on people, such as facial features, retinal scans, medical records, and much more.
Somehow I don't recall any of this being passed in front of the People to get their input on any of this stuff, it was just done. Of what possible use is any of this to fighting the war of terror? Are terrorists flying in and out of the U.S. on such a regular basis that the Bush administration feels the need to further violate the Constitution's protections against unreasonable search and seizure? Or is this all just more of the far right's plans to complete hold up to scutiny every single aspect of our lives?
Because if these measures were truly about preventing terrorism, they would have started on our southern border first. They would be doing something about the area in South America known as the Three Corners, that borders Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, where they know that terror suspects wander the streets with impunity. In Ciudad del Este, on the Paraguayan side of the Parana River, Dark skinned Arab men regularly buy Paraguayan passports, which they use to enter Mexico.
From Mexico, where everyone is on the take, they obtain Mexican identification, passports, etc. and cross the U.S. border. If caught, they can claim to be Mexican, and get sent back to Mexico, only to try to cross the border again.
But this danger doesn't seem to worry this administration at all. They're more concerned with what's on your cell phone, your computer, and your child's MP3 player than any actual threat. They're more interested in data basing your face, your phone calls, your purchases, your medical data, your DNA, and every other aspect of your life, than they are in any threat from the boogeymen.
Fourth Amendment? Bah! We don't need no stinking Constitution! The President himself said so!
As our democracy fades away into a distant memory, and the fascists from the far right impose more and more restrictions on our lives, at what point do the American people say that we've had enough? Because make no mistake about any of this. They are leading us down the path to a police state faster than you can keep up with it all. So what are you prepared to do about any or all of this. Will you email your Senator? The White House? Or will your complacency spell the beginning of the end of the America we all knew and loved, in favor of a nation that oppresses it's people, and is feared the world over?
Other nations are arming themselves to the teeth to prevent us from attacking them. Is this the America we want? Social programs are being decimated, causing untold misery, sickness, hardship and even death. Have we become so immune to the suffering of others?
Our fathers and mothers fought and died in a war so great and so violent, that we as a nation swore to never allow anything that even resembled the Nazi regime to ever take hold anywhere on the planet ever again. But now, it is here in our land, and if we do not demand an end to the policies and program implementations, then when you are asked for your papaers and your password, you can not argue. You will have to meekly submit like a lamb to the will of the government, and the will of the People will be lost in the history books as a failed experiment.
Do it now. Write to your Senator, your Congressperson, and anyone and everyone you can think of, and demand an end to the surveillance society they are shoving down our throats and a return to Constitutional law in America. Batmanchester

The President Lost His Mind Over The Weekend

While everyone in the country was watching the Super Bowl or preparing for today's critical primary and caucas votes, the President of the United States was busy plotting the destruction of our country. Attempting to sneak his 3.1 trillion dollar budget proposal past the public while our backs were turned, the Bush budget would increase military spending to levels that would only be needed were he planning to start World War Three before he leaves office. That is, unless he plans to declare martial law and suspend the elections as Musharraf did in Pakistan.
Also done by this maniac in the White House, and again attempted to slip by us under the radar, was his announcement that he would veto any FISA bill that the Senate sent to him, unless it includes retroactive immunity for the telecom corporations.
After years of shrill banshee screaming by this President of imminent annihilation, the gall that reeks and stinks from his threatened veto tells the American people all in one fell swoop just who and what this Republican Party has been about these last two torturous decades. It has not been about protecting the American people, nor our interests. It has not been about making America freat once again. It has not been about some boogeymen that may attack us from caves. It has been about the corrupt use of power and color of authority to further the interests of the 'elites' and the richest among us. It has been about siphoning off tax dollars not to fix the infrastructure of our country, or help children get an education, but to further enrich oil companies that helped get this imbecile appointed to the Oval Office.
In the new Bush deficit budget, he proposes to cut off more than 100,000 families from housing assistance, which would cause a rise in the number of homeless people, but I imagine sacrifices must be made in order to pay for the pork barrel miltary projects the Pentagon has in mind.
In this budget massacre, he proposes to cut over 200,000 families off of heating assistance, allowing them to freeze to death in order to pay for some wild scheming and planning by the war mongers amongst us.
As he espouses the virtues of our police and firefighters, he proposes to slash spending for those services by almost 50%. That's pretty much in line with Bush's bait and switch rhetoric we've come to recognize these last seven years. Praise a sector of society in order to make them feel good and vote for you, then cut their knees out from under them, all for the good of the country of course.
As Medicare and Medicaid recipients already face increasing hardship due to the cruel callousness of this President's past cuts, he now proposes slashing the programs even further. Co-pays would rise, the cost of prescriptions would go up, and there would be savings all right. But the savings would come with dead bodies attached, because when the co-pay rises on the poorest of the poor, they can not afford them, and therefore stop going to the doctor. This is the new Republican preventive medicine campaign. 'Let the poor die and we'll save money.'
Not to worry though, because this fiscally irresponsible President will be giving away Homeland Security dollars to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a town of less than 100,00 citizens, which has inexplicably turned up as a terrorist target
But the veto threat against a bill that would help protect the country, according to Bush's own words, shows us as clear as day that this war on a noun has been a farce from the beginning. This war of terror has been aimed at the American people all along. To take away our rights. To stifle voices of dissent. To throw the Constitution out the window, and replace it with a corporate controlled fascist government that could run roughshod over the people with the police state powers they would foist upon us.
Congress must send this huckster in chief the FISA bill without any immunity for the telecom companies, and let Bush veto it. Let this man show us where the concerns of the Republican Party truly lie. Not with the American people as a whole, but with the rich and the power mad war mongerers. Toss this new 'budget' out the window, and restore the money to the domestic programs like infrastructure rebuilding and programs for those with the least, because if the Congress caves in to this lame duck in chief, this maniac, then they will be condeming this country to decades of hardship while the oil companies and multi-nationals collect corporate welfare and laugh in the face of us all. Batmanchester

I've Got My Giants Hat On And I'm Ready To Go!

Instead of doing the traditional Super Bowl Party with all of the cleanup it would entail, what with the making of ribs, sandwiches, chicken wings, chips, beer, soda, and all the other deatils that go into putting together a successful party, and the cleanup that ensues afterwards, this year we decided to go out and save our carpet from another massacre.
This year, we're going to brave the elements, just as the brave fans did at Lambeau Field two weeks ago when the Giants upset the Packers in the NFC Championship. Although we won't be out in the bitter cold for more than a few minutes on our way to a sports bar that boasts ten huge televisions, and twenty five smaller ones, it's still a tip of the hat to those fans, some of whom were crazy enough to wear tee shirts.
So, I'm pulling my old Giants jersey over my head, buckling up the jeans, brushing up my black cowboy boots, (Ha! He said Cowboy, haha!), grabbing the Giants cap, and pulling the Giants banner off of the wall to take with us.
We're going to go to a place full of a rowdy mixture of college kids and older folks, where we can eat flank steak and chicken wings, and drink five dollar pitchers, all in the cause of the church at which we worship, the Church Of The NFL. Our altars are made of the sturdiest oak and marble bar tops, and today, on this our holiest of holy days, we're going to forget that anything is wrong with the world, let our hair down and whoop it up every time the G-Men score against this over rated unbeaten team.
Written to make crazy the fans of the Patriots, remember that I also favor the Pat's, but not today. I'll be cheering every time Plaxico Buress leaps into the air to make an impossible catch, every time that Brandon Jacobs thunders through the Patriot defense, and every time that Kevin Boss grabs that over the middle short pass to pick up a first down.
We'll be half lit at half time, singing songs about whatever drunken crowds sing songs about, and probably will miss all of the much vaunted Super Bowl commercials, because we'll be pushing up to the bar to get more beer for the second half. I hope they replay them sometime after the game, so we get to see them, but then again, I could care less.
As my heart starts to squeeze in my chest coming close to the end of the game, due to the Giants' habit of keeping us fans in suspense until there's two minutes to go, the joy and the release will be almost orgasmic when they pull off that last second upset of a team that no one gives them much chance to beat.
That's what I love about this city where I am now. The people are football fanatics, although I don't particularly care for their team of choice, which is the Kansas City Chiefs. But everyone will still be out and choosing sides, and I'll be right there in the thick of them, unable to write tomorrow, unable to get out of bed, probably unable to remember most of the game, save that the Giants pulled off the biggest upset since the Jets beat the Colts. But other than being at the Big Dance itself, this is the next best thing, surrounded by fellow worshipers, with copius amounts of liquid bravado, enough food to feed an army, and having so many televisions around you, you'll never miss a second of the game, even when you go the the bathroom.
If I don't see you tomorrow, you'll know why, but as I struggle to not spend the day throwing up, I'll be the praises of the newly crowned NFL Champions, the New York Giants. Batmanchester